Panthers plan to activate Christian McCaffrey off IR for Sunday’s game vs. Chiefs
The Carolina Panthers expect Christian McCaffrey to be activated Friday or Saturday for Sunday’s game in Kansas City.
“Yes, I’m hopeful that that will happen,” head coach Matt Rhule said when asked Friday. “I would anticipate that happening.”
After being designated to return from injured reserve last week, McCaffrey participated in practice all week. Rhule said Thursday that he looked “fresh and fast” in practice.
“Christian, he wants to go. So we’ll practice one more time fast (Saturday) and I would anticipate him playing,” Rhule said.
During the period of Thursday’s practice open to the media, McCaffrey’s practice included a sprint down the field and no signs of limitations.
“You can tell that he’s just eager to just get back out there,” quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said. “We’ve watched how hard he’s worked; he’s a true grinder. So, I think he just gave y’all something, some eye candy or something.”
Then why hasn’t McCaffrey been added to the active roster yet?
The priority is making sure that the running back doesn’t have any setbacks as he continues to take part in practice. The Panthers (3-5) do not want to play him until he’s 100%.
“If we played right now, I feel like he’d be able to play,” Rhule said. “It’s just one of those deals where like I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Like, we’re just trying to take him day-by-day and make sure that, we had a good workout (Wednesday), he handled it well, we had a good workout today. We’ve practiced well and hard and so we’ll see where he’s at (Friday). So, day-by-day.
“But at the same time, things are trending and moving in the right direction. He’s getting better and better, so it’s just a matter of ... just no setback.”
The All-Pro suffered a high-ankle sprain in the team’s Week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 20 and has missed the next six games. The team has gone 3-3 in his absence.
The Panthers do not have to add him to the roster until 4 p.m. Saturday. From a competitive perspective, there’s no rush to say whether he’ll plays and show the Panthers’ cards — although, they certainly won’t fool the Chiefs.
Making sure those setbacks don’t take place also plays a factor in waiting to add him to the active roster. Adding someone to the roster also means taking someone off the roster. On Thursday, the Panthers released undrafted offensive lineman Sam Tecklenburg from Baylor, leaving the roster with one open spot.
If everything continues as is, he is on pace to play Sunday. But there is no rushing an official announcement of him back either way.
“We have a huge plan for Mike. If Christian can’t go, Mike’s ready to carry the load, if Christian can go, then activating someone doesn’t mean that we have them in a jersey, we could activate someone and then get them in the game and and work them out and see how they feel,” Rhule said. “I think there’s a lot of things that still have to happen.”
For now, Panthers fans and fantasy owners alike, stay tuned. There’s no need to rush this.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 8:48 AM.
